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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28052301">snowball fight</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrazyPrepared/pseuds/CrazyPrepared'>CrazyPrepared</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>have yourself a merry little christmas [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Trolls (Movies 2016 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fluff, Gen, Snowball Fight</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 15:07:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,280</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28052301</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrazyPrepared/pseuds/CrazyPrepared</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Poppy rolls her eyes. "Oh, and I suppose you've never been in a snowball fight?"</p><p>"Nope," Branch says. "Can't say I have."</p><p>"Wait, what?!"</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Branch &amp; Queen Poppy (Trolls)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>have yourself a merry little christmas [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2053290</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>38</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>snowball fight</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Branch isn't sure what's going on here, but he<em> is</em> absolutely one-hundred-percent sure he doesn't want to find out—it's so much easier to just <em>not </em>get pulled into Poppy's wild, bizarre hijinks if he doesn't have to, but she's crouched down in front of a large, snow-covered mushroom, with a scoop of snow clutched in her hand and a grin on her face that just screams <em>trouble</em>—so, when he asks, it's very much against his better judgment.</p><p>"What are you doing?"</p><p>Poppy jumps—like she really didn't know he was there, like she really didn't hear him come up behind her, but even she can't be that unobservant, even she can't miss the crackle and crunch of ice and snow under his feet—and she spins around to face him, eyes wide and cheeks bright pink from the cold. "Branch! Shh!" She puts a finger to her lips and continues to talk in the loudest whisper he's ever heard. "We're in the middle of a war here!"</p><p>"Looks deadly," Branch says flatly.</p><p>"Like you wouldn't believe! Look at this!" She shakes her head, and an enormous clump of white powder falls from her hair to the frozen ground. "That's what Chenille did to me! She's worse than <em>Smidge</em>!"</p><p>"No one is worse than Smidge."</p><p>Poppy thinks about it. "Hmm. Yeah." She nods. More snow falls out of her hair. "Point taken. But have you <em>ever</em> seen Chenille in a snowball fight? She's <em>vicious</em>, Branch! I barely got out with my life!"</p><p>"A snowball fight?" Branch echoes.</p><p>"Yeah! I'm serious! That girl takes no prisoners!"</p><p>"Aren't you guys a little—" it takes him too long to find a way to say it that's not going to sound mean, so he finally just says it in a way that's going to sound mean, "—<em>old</em> for that kind of thing?"</p><p>"What?" Poppy laughs. "No! Of course not! You're never too old for snowball fights!"</p><p>"I beg to differ."</p><p>She rolls her eyes at him. "Oh, and I suppose Mr. No Fun over here has <em>never</em> been in a snowball fight?"</p><p>Branch almost rolls his eyes right back, but he's not going to sink to her level. "Nope, can't say I have."</p><p>"Wait, what?" Poppy whips her head around to stare at him, with a wrinkle in her brow and a frown pulling at the edges of her mouth. Even more snow falls out of her hair, but she doesn't seem to see it, or maybe she just doesn't care. "What do you mean, you've <em>never been in a snowball fight</em>?"</p><p>"I mean <em>I've never been in a snowball fight</em>," Branch is already a few hundred miles past completely done with this conversation, and if she would just stop <em>looking</em> at him like that, like he's just told her he slaughters entire litters of kittens in his spare time— "I know it's hard to believe, but I haven't had much room for fun and games in my life, Poppy."</p><p>(He tries not to think about it. He tries not to think about all the nights locked down in his bunker, breathing too hard and too fast, shaking all over like a damn leaf and never knowing why, never having a reason, just feeling like something <em>bad</em> was coming, and all the days on the edge of the village, staring out at all the lights and listening to all the talking, all the laughing, all the singing, looking down and wanting, but knowing he could <em>never have</em>--)</p><p>A freezing clump of snow slams into the side of his face.</p><p>"Poppy!" Branch swipes the powder off his cheek. "What are you <em>doing</em>?"</p><p>Poppy beams back at him, brighter than the sun. "Looks like it's time for your very first snowball fight!"</p><p>Branch almost laughs, because of course that's what this is, of course that's where Poppy's mind is going, and it's so ridiculous, it's so childish and silly and absurd and it's <em>so</em> <em>Poppy</em>—but he knows if he even smiles, she won't take him seriously when he tells her no. "Poppy, I'm not—"</p><p>"No! No, no, no, none of that! We're not doin' none of that, buddy!" Poppy scoops up another handful of snow off the ground and packs it into a ball. "We're having fun here!"</p><p>Branch reflexively puts his hands up to cover his face and turns his head away to hide the little twitch at the corner of his lip—it's entirely irrational, but there's just something about this whole thing that makes it really, really hard to stay serious. "No, we are <em>not</em> having fun here! You're just looking for an excuse to hit me with things!"</p><p>Poppy giggles. "Well, then, hit me back!" She lobs her second snowball, which clips the pointed tip of his ear, and sails on past him to smack against a tree.</p><p>"<em>Stop</em>!" But his mouth edges up in a full smile, and he knows if she sees it, he's a dead man. "Don't!"</p><p>"Come on!" She pelts him with another lump of ice. "You know you want to hit me!"</p><p>"No, stop it, Poppy, I'm—" a laugh slips out before he can catch it, and oh, no, that's it, he's doomed, it's over, he'll never come back from this, "—I'm serious!"</p><p>She already has another wad of white powder balled up in her fist, but she drops it to clap her hands over her mouth and squeal. "Oh, my gosh! That was a laugh! That was a real laugh! I've never heard you laugh before!"</p><p>Branch's face burns hot in a furious flush. "Yeah, there's a reason for that."</p><p>She doesn't drop her hands, but her eyes crinkle up at the corners. "It's so cute! Let me hear it again!"</p><p>"What?" If his cheeks get any warmer, he's going to burst into flame and die, which would still be better than this. "<em>No</em>! Stop being weird!"</p><p>"Okay, okay, wait—" Poppy pries her hands away from her mouth, "—wait, okay, so, a troll, a Bergen, and a glowbug all walk into a party—"</p><p>Branch throws a snowball at her.</p><p>It's just to get her to shut up, to get her to <em>stop talking</em> about this, but it hits her full in the face, and for a second, she freezes, her mouth still open and her eyes wide, sparkling crystals running down her chin in a rushing white river.</p><p>She reaches up, slowly, to wipe the white powder out of her eyes. "Okay," she says. "It's <em>on</em>."</p><p>Branch leans down to scrape up another fistful of snow, but he's too late—a hunk of ice hits his cheek, and slides all the way down to his neck, melting to water in the thick cloth of his jacket—</p><p>"<em>Poppy</em>!"</p><p>"Don't dish it out if ya can't take it, Stick Man!"</p><p>Branch flings a fresh clump at her, and it smacks her right in the forehead, but he doesn't even have the time to feel proud of himself, because she's already got a blast of her own locked and loaded, and it gets him on the nose with a solid <em>thwack</em>.</p><p>And, all of a sudden, the air is thick with screams and shouts and snowballs, and this is crazy, this is <em>insane</em>, and Branch is laughing, wild and loud and breathless, so hard he can't throw straight, so hard he can barely stand up, and he thinks this might just be the most fun he's had in his entire life.</p><p>(When it's over, his ribs ache with how hard he laughed, and it feels so weird and it feels so good, and he thinks that might just be the first time he's laughed in twenty years.)</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Branch has a jacket now because just the thought of him running around in that vest-and-shorts combo in the snow was making me cold. and Poppy absolutely wears fleecy tights or leggings under her dresses so she can stay warm and she doesn't have to sacrifice her Aesthetic™</p></blockquote></div></div>
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